German folk song archive

The historically valuable and unique inventory of the "Deutsche Volksliedarchiv" includes a diverse part collection of folk song as well as traditional and popular song. This collection has been continually maintained and researched for over one hundred years. Due to new housing and conservatory measures in recent years, the inventory founded by John Meier in 1914 is now fully accessible and usable.

Foto: Michael Fischer, ZPKM

Amongst other things you will find the following in our collections:

• 250,000 song documents from collecting activities (as a historical core of the German folk song archive mainly from the period between 1914 and 1930)

• a comprehensive song documentation with more than 20,000 workbooks (in alphabetical order according to song begin and historical genre)

• 15,000 song leaflets and song magazines (15th to 20th century) and handwritten songbooks (from the late 18th through to the end of the 20th century)

• numerous sound recordings / mediums (phonograph cylinders, tapes, vinyl records, CDs)

• Special collection of popular music culture song postcards and picture documents

• 10,000 scores of bourgeois music culture from the Musikalien-Leihinstitut Schaumburg (Music Lending Institute Schaumberg)

• 1,000 sound recording mediums and material of workers songs or workers musical culture

• 14,000 poems and 3,000 song documents from the First World War 1914-1918

• Collections and estates of individuals and institutions

 
We have summarised the diverse research possibilities within our collections on our own Research Page.

In July 2013, the historical collection of the German Volksliedarchiv were registered as a personal cultural heritage relic in the memorial book

Cultural relic of special importance according to §§ 12ff. Denkmalschutzgesetz